When was Easter first celebrated in colonial or antebellum America?

[Woollcott]

This looks like a very straightforward and simple question -- but I have spent a lot of time and energy on it, and still don't have an answer. I would like to know the year when Easter was first celebrated in America (I believe it was between 1840 and 1880). I suspect it was celebrated in either New York City or Baltimore. Although all I need is the y ear, I would be very grateful for any other information.

[SMP]

Easter was being celebrated certainly as far back as the 1700's. Pennsylvania Ducth settlers used to dye eggs to celebrate.
The first Easter Parade was in New York in the mid 1800's

[Sandy-Wroe]

Easter is an important religious festival in the Roman Catholic Church. The Franciscan Order were in California as early as 1769. They would have celebrated Easter, but not with eggs or bunnies.

[ainitatyb]

As the previous writer indicates Easter is an important religious celebration and it is only in recent times that the celebration of the birth of Jesus has taken over from the celebration of the death and resurrection which was traditionally seen as the important event. It is likely therefore that Easter was always celebrated even by the founding fathers